The initiatives announced today are to be welcomed.

It is clear that social housing needs to form part of the housing provision in a modern social democratic society.

Opening up of state land, the introduction of the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) to unblock infrastructural bottlenecks and the planning reforms should all have a positive effect in the medium term.

The strategy for a viable and sustainable rental sector will be more difficult to implement.

Capital assistance for buyers would help in the short term however as an ongoing measure it could see a return of the ‘new home premium’ for the 21st century which would achieve little.

Overall the initiatives are to be welcomed however it is important that in an attempt to rapidly increase supply of housing units we have learnt from the mistakes of the past and this time build the right product in the right locations to sustainably meet the needs of the market.